ABSTRACT
The argument for the intervention of the EU in transport and infrastructure policy is rooted in the three main goals of the EU: competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability. Transport is considered to be key to economic development, and is also a fundamental aspect of social and territorial cohesion. The transport sector is a major contributor to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and the environmental impacts of large-scale transport infrastructure on natural habitats and landscapes are significant. While transport policy was mentioned in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, it was only in the late 1980s that the EU began to actively develop a comprehensive strategy for transport policy, including infrastructure development. This chapter outlines the development of, and the rationale for, an EU transport policy. Particular attention is paid to the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), a programme of infrastructure development that has significant territorial development and spatial planning implications at the European and regional level. The contribution of EU transport policy (in particular of the TENT) to economic, social and territorial cohesion, and to the achievement of more environmentally sustainable forms of mobility in Europe, is discussed in the final two sections of the chapter.
